Another one from Saxony.
A man drives his car to the junkyard, looking for replacement parts. He greets the owner and asks:
“Windshield wiper for a Trabant?”
The junkyard owner thinks for a moment, then replies:
“Sure, sounds like a fair exchange.”The Wikipedia page on East German jokes has a few Trabant jokes.
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What’s the best feature of a Trabant? – There’s a heater at the back to keep your hands warm when you’re pushing it.
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A new Trabi has been launched with two exhaust pipes – so you can use it as a wheelbarrow.
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How do you double the value of a Trabant? – Fill it with gas.
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The back page of the Trabant manual contains the local bus schedule.
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Four men were seen carrying a Trabant. Somebody asks them why? Was it broken? They reply: “No, nothing wrong with it, we’re just in a hurry.”
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How do you catch a Trabi? – Place a piece of chewing gum on the road.
The heated rear window one and the doubling its value one were jokes that we used to make about Skodas before they got good.
Also, what do you call a Skoda with a sunroof? A skip.
haha that one’s rough! That said, you can put a lot in a junk car.
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Aha!
I think that gold one with the body kit actually looks really cool
In case people are wondering: it’s indeed a german joke.
It’s a pun. “meet” and “hit” are using the same word in german
Come to think of it, that’s a thing in Swedish as well - we could make the pun work there as well:
Två jägare träffades. Båda dog.
Båda dog! Båda dog! No Treåt
(I know å is pronounced like “eu” like in Blåhaj. Couldn’t help myself tho)
For it to match Swedish phonetic rules, it would have to be:
Bäd dågg! Bäd dågg! Nåu trit!
Oh true my bad, thank you!
Well, doing it in properly phonetic Swedish would have ruined the joke a bit in English, so I don’t think it’s a problem.
Wouldn’t it be “Nåo trit”?
I guess it depends on which English accent you’re emulating.
A Båda dog once bit my sister… No realli!
My hovercraft is full of eels!
Works in Dutch too.
Twee jagers treffen elkaar. Beiden zijn dood.
That joke used to work in English.
By c. 1300, of things, “to come into physical contact with, join by touching or uniting with;” also, of persons, “come together by approaching from the opposite direction; come into collision with, combat.”
https://www.etymonline.com/word/meet
It still can mean collision or fight, but the context needs to be very clear. Two armies meeting on the battlefield, for example. Or two hunters met in combat.
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That’s why translation can be so hard, especially for poems, songs, comedy etc. Double meanings, metaphors, rhymes etc are often lost when translated.
In some cases you can replace a pun with another pun that works in the target language.
In other cases, where you’re translating a religious text, doing something for scholarly reasons, or you otherwise think your audience would really like to know what’s going on in a text you have to add a translation note.
I only understand train station.
So it’s a misstranslated joke then. With that information it’s kinda funny or at least it makes sense.
More like untranslatable, as the context just doesn’t work in English. You either have something that doesn’t make sense or - if you use the other meaning - a statement with no humor. The pun is completely dependent on the German phrasing.
treffen.
In the early 80s, American scientists and engineers produced the smallest precision drill bit ever created. With great pride and fanfare, they sent it to their West German colleagues for study and reproduction.
Just days later, the engineering team received a parcel. In it, a note: “Thank you for letting us test our equipment” and the original drill bit with a hole drilled through its center.
To explain the joke, as is tradition in Germany. “To meet” translates to “treffen” in German. Which can also mean “to hit something or somebody”.
Once had a multicultural family gathering where we translated the same joke into several languages.
A man knocks at a door. A woman opens and he says: “Hello, my name is Toulouse. I’m here to fuck your daughter.” The woman screams: “To what?!?” He answers calmly: “Toulouse.”
“To meet” translates to “treffen” in German. Which can also mean “to hit something or somebody”.
Join the shooting club, meet new friends.
Schiessen lernen; Freunde treffen! is a popular slogan with German shooting clubs.
Hola, mi nombre es Álvaro, vengo a tirarme/follarme a tu hija.
¿¡¿¡¿A qué?!?!?
Álvaro.
I used to work with a couple Czech dudes. One day my coworkers and I were badgering the one dude to tell us a Czech joke. He was pretty reluctant because he said he could only really think of one joke but wasn’t sure it would translate well. When he finally told us the joke he got us with this masterpiece.
Two balloons are floating along, one says to the other and hey look a cactus.
All of us were confused by this, he told us it was much funnier in Czech because balloon and cactus sound similar so it’s a pun. So we had him tell us the joke untranslated in Czech and balloon and cactus sound nothing alike.
I’m still not sure if this dude was fucking with us.
It’s a silly joke for little kids of preschool age and it only makes sense if you include the right sound effects. It’s supposed to go like this: Two balloons are floating along, one says to the other: - Hey look a cactussssssssssss! - Where isssssssssss it?
One that works in English:
A superconductor came to a bar and ordered a beer. The barman said - I’m not giving you a beer! Get the fuck out of my bar! The superconductor left without any resistance.
An argon atom walks into a bar. The barman says: “We don’t serve your kind here. get out”. The argon atom doesn’t react.
A neutron walks into a bar and asks: “How much for a beer?” The barman says: “For you, no charge”.
Oh hey the German version of this joke is also one that doesn’t translate! “A neutron walks into a bar. The bartender says: Sorry, only invited guests.” In German, “geladen” means both “invited” and “charged”.
A neutrino walks into a bar. The bartender asks what it wants to drink.
“Oh, nothing, I’m just passing through.”
Two drunks walk into a bar. The third one ducked.
An ion walks into a bar.
“Barman, barman, I lost an electron here last night”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m positive!”
Okay that’s actually really funny
OKay that made me chuckle a little
What’s the Czech word that’s being use for the “issss?” Since “cactus” ends with an “s” sound in both English and Czech, the joke might translate directly.
The second question is Kde ho vidíššššš? Which ends on a sh sound and the last word of the sentence means see, as in Where do you see it?
the fact that you don’t know if he’s fucking around makes it even funnier lmao
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Oh I can do German-style comedy too, but as an American.
A Democrat and a Republican walk into a bar. They fight and both die in the hospital. Their families have to each pay $80,000 for medical expenses, then both families sue the bar. The bar closes, the owner divorces, spirals into alcoholism, and commits suicide. Then the funeral director buys a new house.
You said comedy, not children stories!
A European man at his favorite vacation/holiday destination on the Mediterranean goes into a bar and says, “One pint of beer.” The bartender brings him the pint, and the man pays him the price of the beer without leaving a tip. The man drinks the beer. He falls into alcoholism again. When he returns home, he discusses with his doctor options for treating alcoholism. The man is sent to a rehabilitation facility for a few months and recovers. When he returns home, he still has his job. lmaooooo Europe is so much better than USA 🤣🤣🤣
I thought this was turning into a Latvian joke.
The man drinks the beer. He falls into alcoholism again. His children go hungry. His wife succumbs to tuberculosis. The man drinks to forget, but the beer runs out. Now the man can never forget.
Only one issue. Beer is not sold by pints in the Mediterranean.
Fine. A Celsius or kilometer of beer then.
1km³ would be sick
I’m pretty sure that’s just how Barcelona operates.
Fuck it. I’m down. Sounds like fun. Can’t wait to aggravate Germans with my immature German bullshit. Achhh duven shneider volkwagens nien schaft vida zein!! Get your train pass and speedo ready. I’ll bring over some BBQ, debt, and assault rifles. Let’s do it 🏖🚈
You only need Speedos if you’re going to France. They have a weird thing about Speedos
Heh. Relatable vibe.
Two Bulgarians are driving through the countryside when they are pulled over by an officer. “Sorry to bother you”, says the officer, “but I’m looking for two child molesters.”
The Bulgarians look at each other for a moment, turn to the officer, and with a solemn nod say
“We’ll do it.”
Translated Hungarian joke:
The Székely and his son go into the forest to cut trees. When cutting a tree, the son says:
“Goodbye, my beloved father.”
“Why are you saying a farewell to me?”, asks the Székely.
“Because the tree is falling on you.”
What’s the joke? Are there slow falling trees in Hungary?
This reply made me laugh more than that joke ever did.
German humour is no laughing matter!
One of my favorite Filipino jokes:
Why didn’t the priest go swimming in the ocean? Because it’s salt water.
“Salt water” in Tagalog can be translated as “tubig asin,” which sounds like the English “too big a sin.” Many Filipino jokes rely on Tagalog and English like that.
Here’s another (putting original Tagalog because it’s kind of relevant):
May joke ako tungkol sa airport kaso NAIA ako eh hehe.
English:
I have a joke about the airport, but I am NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) hehe.
NAIA sounds like “nahiya,” which means “shy,” so it would sort of translate to “… but I was shy.”
Tubig asin, hahaha, god I wish I were bilingual
We have some like that in England, for example a Frenchman only ever carries one egg because an egg is un oeuf
What?
Oeuf is French for egg. “Un oeuf” sounds like “enough”
Noice!
WE HAVE SOME LIKE THAT IN ENGLAND, FOR EXAMPLE A FRENCHMAN ONLY EVER CARRIES ONE EGG BECAUSE AN EGG IS UN OEUF
What’s yellow, and waiting? Jonathan.
e: i promise it’s not racist
What’s the joke here?
In french, Jonathan sounds like ‘jaune attend’ (yellow waits)
omg
I was trying to make it work with German
yeah, a while ago they tried that in france as well
Life is like Belgium. Sometimes you just have to push trough it.
Pffft.
And people say Germans have no sense of humour.
Hahaha what would it sound like in German? gelb warten?
One translated from Norwegian:
“Once upon a time… But now it’s a corridor”
I’ll supply the original and an explanation:
“Det var en gang… Men nå er det en korridor”
“Det var en gang” is literally “It was a time/an instance”, and it’s the main way every fairytale starts in Norwegian. But “gang” could also mean hallway.
“Det var en gang” is better translated as “Once upon a time”.
They showed that with their first translation. The second, more literal, translation is to explain the pun.
An angry Ontarian calls a radio show, and complains about all the Newfies coming to Ontario to take the good jobs. “We aughta build a wall to keep them Newfies out!”
Next call to the radio show is a newfie: “Owshegettinonb’y? Ye by’s be havin’ any jobs bildin tha’ wall or wha’?”
(How are you doing? You guys have any jobs building that wall, or what?)
These two are from Romania, specifically about people from Ardeal (the region encompassing Transylvania) - which means they’re aimed at the fact that people from Ardeal are slow (haha, so funny, Southerners…):
- John and George were out on the field reaping all day and were heading back to the village. Suddenly, it starts raining fiercely, so they huddle under some walnut trees and decide to spend the night there in case it wouldn’t let up.
Later on, while sleeping, George is suddenly woken up by a foul smell. “John,” he said softly, “did you fart?”
“No, George, must’ve been the dog.”
“Oh, ok.”
A couple of minutes pass, then George suddenly has a realisation: “John, the dog isn’t here, though…”
“Oh, don’t worry,” says John half asleep, “I’m sure it’ll turn up eventually.”
- John, George and Mary were at the bus stop, waiting for the bus. They’ve been there for half an hour, sitting.
“The bus isn’t coming,” John says softly.
After a couple of minutes, George replies matter-of-factly: “it’ll come, I’m telling you.”
A few more minutes pass, then Mary chimes in: “if you two keep arguing, I’m walking home.”
Québécois and a French learning Ontarian having a chat. The Ontarians goes - o look a fly, Québécois corrects him- A fly. O - wow you have good eyesight. Wregarde, un mouche- -Non, une mouche
For anyone who doesn’t get it: The joke relies on understanding how Latin languages gender words (Un v. Une, Masculine/Feminine form).So it literally doesn’t work in English. It’s also a common translation error non native speakers have because you only know the “gender” of a word by… Knowing if it’s masculine or feminine through experience.
Best way to carry the joke is:
“Oh look, a/un(male) fly.”
“No, it’s a/une(feminine) fly.”
“Wow, you have good eyes/Wow, you can see it’s genitals from here?”
Certainly clunky but hilarious if you speak French.
